“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” or “FNAF 2”, hit theatres Dec. 5 and by opening weekend, it had already made 63 million dollars in the U.S. It surpassed “Zootopia 2” and “Wicked: For Good,” marking the biggest opening of the year for a PG-13 rated movie.
The movie starts in the year 1982 at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria, as young Charlotte Emily watches William Afton, the restaurant’s owner, lure a boy into a backroom. None of the parents or adults believe her cries to go check on the boy, so she goes back herself. As she’s walking back to the stage carrying the boy, William kills her. Afterwards, a puppet-like animatronic, the Marionette, emerges holding her body, before the location is shut down. Charlotte’s soul inhibits the Marionette, and as the first child killed she seeks justice.
The movie then jumps to 2002 where the old Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria sits abandoned and decayed. The murders have become folklore in the town, and even turned into a festival called FazFest. The film shifts its focus to Abby Schmidt, a young girl who sees the animatronics as children’s souls trapped in animatronic machines. Throughout the movie she talks to and about them as if they were her old friends. Her brother Mike is protective of her after the events of the first film, and wants to give her a normal childhood.
Vanessa, William Afton’s daughter, battles with the burden of her family’s past. The trauma and guilt she feels play a main role in the movie and led to her finding out the Marionette’s awakening signals.
Three paranormal investigators and vloggers, Lisa, Alex and Rob, enter the abandoned pizzeria with the misguided help of William Afton. After Lisa turns off a music box, she unknowingly frees the Marionette, which possesses her and reactivates the Toy Animatronics. Marionette turns these new mascots into killers, and introduces Toy Chica, Toy Bonnie, Toy Freddy and others.
Abby begins secretly talking to Toy Chica, believing it’s the original, through a device called the FazTalker. This ultimately leads to the animatronics escaping the pizzeria and provoking terror amongst the town. They kill Abby’s teacher before turning their sights to Abby herself. In one of the film’s scariest scenes, the Marionette fully possesses Abby and tries to kill Vanessa.
The climax revealed that Vanessa’s brother, Michael Afton, is also one of William’s children. Along with the Toy Animatronics, he tries to kill Vanessa, Abby and Mike. However the original animatronics barge in and save the trio, but Michael had already escaped. They hardly notice as they are rejoicing that Abby had become unpossessed.
The movie ends with William’s dead body, still trapped inside his bunny animatronic, reawakening. In addition, Vanessa gets possessed by the Marionette, which leaves her fate up to question. Mike and Abby walk away, but the ending clearly portrays their story is not over.
We stayed for an after credit scene, which indicates a third movie could be coming soon. We believe this because the scene shows party planners coming into the pizzeria looking for decorations, which follows the events of the third game.
Overall, the movie has received mixed reviews from both critics and the general public. The Tomatoemeter, critic only ratings, gave it a 15% (out of 100), while fans on the Popcornmeter gave the movie an 87%.
Honestly, we enjoyed the first movie better than the second, but that is not to say we completely disliked it. Our main concerns included the plot being difficult to follow at times, a shift in Michael Afton’s desires, and the movie staying surface level to the lore. However we appreciated the several references to the games and the performances put on by the actors and actresses, especially Josh Hutcherson.
We are 50/50 about this movie. We’d recommend it to anyone who is into the Five Nights At Freddy’s universe, however those who aren’t can skip the movie. Overall, we had a great time and cannot wait for the third movie to be released.
